It would be nice to be able to select files based on modified date, either before or after a given date. There are situations where files will never be modified and must be retained for years. With the enhancement the user could backup "old" files once or once a month or quarter or year and only backup on a daily or weekly basis "recently" modified files.

In my case, we have a couple of million (approximately 200 KB average size) files that have not been modified since before 2011. The application they belong to does not provide any type of partitioning of data, so we have no choice but to back them up every week which adds 10 to 15 hours to the backups. At this point my only choice to speed up the backups is to do an image backup of the volume dedicated to this data, which means we need to have 150 GB of disk to recover one 250 KB file.

As of right now we can do "after a given date" but not before a given date.

I have submitted this as a feature request.

To select files after a given date do the following steps.

1. create a new FBF set.
2. On the screen where you can choose the options for modified files choose "none"
3. Choose the option to view and edit the files.
4. once the set is enumerated. Right click on the specific drive letter you want to select the modified files
5. Choose the option to include files
6. Select the option "by modification dates"
7. Select the option in the last * Days. Enter the amount of days you want to select. So if you want all the files modified in the last 2 weeks, select 14 days. Please note, this does not look at the archive bit, but at the last modified date on the file.

I figured out a way to select files that are older then a specific date.

here are the steps:

1. create a new FBF set.
2. On the screen where you can choose the options for modified files choose "All Files"
3. Choose the option to view and edit the files.
4. once the set is enumerated. Right click on the specific drive letter you want to select the modified files
5. Choose the option to exclude files
6. Select the option "by modification dates"
7. Select the option in the last * Days. Enter the amount of days you want to de-select. So if you want all the files that are older then 14 days, you would put in 14 days, and then all files that are newer then 14 days old will be deselected.

Derek,
Again thanks for the reply. But it still does not really address my need. I don't want to change the file selection criteria every week, or month (I guess I could enter 365 for the days, but that seems a little cumbersome to me), but at most once a year. And I would have to remember which dates to make these changes. I don't know, I'll think about this and may come to the conclusion that it really isn't that much more work.

I know that some people only have to deal with backups, but I handle (or am involved with) almost everything in IT except TelCom and most end user support.

As far as the post about the forums, it was in no way meant about you. You have been great and in the email to our reps I asked if you were still with the company and was pleased when they assured me you were. The advantage to the forums, as far as I'm concerned, is that others can see the replies and possible solutions. There have been times when I did not need to post in the forums or contact support becuase the solution was already documented in the forums. Maybe you can ask that phone and email support issues are entered in the forums, with appropiate editiing to protect confidential information. In my opinion that would benefit both your support team and your users.

This is becoming a serious issue for me. Any update will be greatly appreciated.

I can understand that contacting support is very valuable, but so are support forums. If I can find the solution to a problem in a support forum and not have to contact support directly, it can save days. In this case, this is a feature request which should have some kind of response within a week. “We’re looking into this and will reply shortly” is a perfectly suitable reply.

Look forward to multiple emails to support about UltraBac v 9.2.1 May 10 2011 build 1200. One of the most frustrating issues is “failed” UltraCopy jobs and viewing the log in View, Reports, Current Operations (used to be UltraView). 99.99…% of the time it locks up the GUI.

At this point I would suggest that you do not allow any more new posts to the forums as they seem to have become useless for current issues.

Again, if I ONLY had to deal with backups these issues may not be that important. But since I work for a Not For Profit that handles health, pension, and 401(k) trust funds for active, retired, disabled, dependents, and widows of unionized coal miners, I have many hats to fill.